The Minister of Immigration has announced new developments in the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) and the Federal Immigrant Investor (FIIP) programs. In the past few years the Canadian Minister of Immigration has announced, on the last weekend in June, changes to each of these two programs, most importantly (1) the number of applications the Federal government would take receipt of in each category, and (2) the work experience that would qualify people to apply in the FSW program. If that pattern had continued, the Minister would have made similar announcements this weekend. Both the FSW program and the FIIP filled up last year. The FIIP filled up in about three hours. Different FSW categories filled up at different speeds, but soon enough the FSW program was considered full and the department stopped taking receipt of any applications in that category too. Now the Minister has suspended the FSW and the FIIP programs entirely. The FSW program will likely be closed for a period of at least six months. There is no target date to reopen the FIIP program. The Minister refers to this as a “pause” to allow the department to re “make important changes to its economic immigration programs before accepting more applications”. As a result, the department will not take receipt of any new Skilled Worker or Federal Investor applications before January 1, at the earliest. It looks as though the qualifying job categories will likely be announced on December 29, 2012. This “pause” will give the department an opportunity to accomplish two goals. First, it will allow the department to shorten the queue by allowing the department to process older applications without having to worry about brand new applications at the same time. Second, it will give the Minister time to redesign the Federal Skilled Worker program. This is not a new objective. The Minister has spoken in the past about revising the selection criteria. For example, until now applicants could earn 10 points for age up to the age of 50, with those points falling to zero for candidates who filed their applications at age 55 of or older. It seems likely that the Minister will change the age requirement so that those over the age of 35 years will get reduced or zero points for age. The Minister has made it clear the past that he would like to see younger immigrants arriving in Canada, as they are expected to be more adaptable to the Canadian labour market, and will contribute to the Canadian economy over a longer period of time. The Minister promises that the changes will not affect the numbers of new immigrants arriving in Canada, but only the criteria that qualifies them for immigrant status. EXCEPTIONS Canada's provinces continue to develop their own immigration programs, which are becoming more and more sophisticated. The Federal government's pause with respect to FSW and FIIP applications does not affect provincial programs. Moreover, new FSW applications that are accompanied by a government approved job offer from an established Canadian employer will still be processed. So too will applications submitted in the PhD stream. There is no suggestion that any sponsorship program will be changed. This announcement makes no changes whatsoever to current policy with respect to parental sponsorships, or any other kind of family class sponsorship.
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